345 people killed in Cambodia stampede

A STAMPEDE in the Cambodian capital has left more than 340 people dead and hundreds injured after panic erupted at a water festival that had attracted millions of revellers.

Dozens of ambulances with their sirens blaring raced to the scene of the incident, which occurred yesterday on a narrow bridge to an island in Phnom Penh where festivities were being held to mark the end of the annual event.

Prime Minister Hun Sen described it as Cambodia’s darkest hour since the Khmer Rouge, whose 1975-1979 rule left up to a quarter of the population dead.